26 February, 2007

If you happen to be in the Bay area next weekend don't forget to visit the North American Handmade Bicycle Show in San Jose. Their site has all the details. If you can't make it, at least take a look the photos of the 2006 show on their web site.

I'm flying out and will be at the show Saturday afternoon and Sunday. So I hope to get a chance to meet some of you. I'll also meet with some manufacturers and explore new product ideas. We won't be exhibiting this year, but plan to next year.

The following week we'll hang out at Big Sur for a much needed mini-vacation, so Velo Orange will be closed from March 3-11. You can still place orders, but they won't be shipped until the following week. There is some question of internet availability where we'll be staying, so questions may take a while to answer.

If all goes well, we might be opening a little showroom in uptown Annapolis soon after we return. Wish us luck. The showroom would allow folks to come by and see, or even buy, our products and give VO some desperately needed storage space.

Hi, that bike belongs to a friend of mine, his name is Chad. Hope that bike will win an award, that will be cool.

The interesting story about this fixedgear was: it was put on back burner for the Brown Bilenky, then for the Orange Bilenky. Finally it is done and all those bikes will be at the same show. Kind of a small world.

Evan and I will be there Saturday and Sunday and we'll make a point of visiting with you. Hope you can make our panel on Sunday afternoon at 2:30 - "Building the long distance bicycle." We have some fantastic panelists, and I am sure all would welcome your contribution to the discussion, as well.

The Toei cycles in the '05 Tokyo show are breathtaking. One little thing I notice is that they've got the fenders mounted with draw bolt fittings at the dropout eyes rather than the P clamps -- i.e., the dropout eyes aren't threaded. Kinda fiddly but I do prefer it that way.

Simon Firth? I met him in Copake, New York at the swap before the auction one year. Simon was at Copake with a friend who had a bike Simon had built. What a stunner it was. I wish I has taken pictures. The paint scheme on that bike was extraordinary, and the craftsmanship of the frame was just as nice.Ah! The joys of rural NY.

Chris, you can't mount them that way on most normal dropouts because there has to be a nut inboard of the dropout and usually that will foul the cassette. The dropouts need to have slightly spread eyelets to allow for this. That being said, I have no idea why this interests me at all; it is a truly trivial detail.

I downloaded the picture of the white 1980s show frame for my desktop background.

Let's see, $4k for the frame, another $2k or so to get the vintage '80s parts to make it just right, and I have a go fast bike I'll maybe ride three times a year. You know if I had a place to keep it safely (maybe my living room wall?) I just might be able to justify it.

One thing I have always like about Bruce Gordon is the way he has the seat post bolt where the seat stays meet. Not a lot of builders do that. I have often wondered whether this is because it is difficult to do right, or aesthetics.

Off Topic: I have a set of Weinmann touring brake levers "with locks". The locks are spring buttons which lock the levers in the braked position. Quirky little gidget which I can think of no us for. Any theories?

Another Off Topic tricky Weinmann interface issue. Will the 22mm standard bar clamps stretch to fit 26mm Nitto bars? And if not, is this just a generic piece to pick up at a place like Loose Screws? The stock 22mm clamp on Ebay looks like a curved flat bar with holes in it.

Different strokes indeed. I kind of like it as a fast urban bike. The selection of components seems very focused. The bike was built with a vision what what it should do efficently. And I think the black is a nice touch.

One thing that I think contributes to the stately look of the Toeis: the top tubes are dead horizontal. When it's one or two degrees slanted, as is customary on some more modern neoclassical bikes, I personally think it looks like a mistake. It's just enough off to throw it off balance. My Kogswell, which I think has a one degree sloped TT, just doesn't look quite right. I realize that people do this to get the bars up and get standover height under control, but I do think there's a tradeoff on pure aesthetics. My $.02.

David, I had the same discussion with Grant Petersen. I said that the bikes he designs have a top tube that only rises a degree or two and doesn't really help get the handlebar height up to any great degree, so why not just make the top tube level and he countered that the rise is so slight that you'd never notice that the top tube isn't level. So I said, then why not make it level?

I personally dislike the aesthetics of OS tubing. I have no problem with a one degree upslope on the TT. I assume there is an upslope on Chris' silver frame as the VO framesets are supposed to have this feature - but my eye cannot detect it in the pictures. If it is indeed a sloped TT, it's certainly subtle enough for my tastes.

I'm not arguing for higher handlebars. I would just note that while Grant may say that 1 degree is insignificant, it's 1/2" on a typical length tube top. Cheat another 1/2" on a well designed head tube and you've picked up an 1". I say "well designed" because if the lift is integral to the casting rather than added on it's not as noticeable as a tacked on extension. You guys have better eyes than I do. I have a Grant designed bike and didn't realize it was a sloped tube until I mounted a rear rack.